Irish inflation nears 40-year high of 6.7% in March

General view of the Grand Canal Docks area of Dublin, Ireland, February 11, 2022. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne

DUBLIN, April 7 (Reuters) – Annual inflation in Ireland neared an almost 40-year high of 6.7% in March, a jump from 5.6% a month earlier on the back of soaring energy prices, data from the Central Statistics Office showed on Thursday.

Diesel and petrol rocketed by 46% and 35% respectively year-on-year while food prices rose by 3.1%. Prices overall were 1.9% higher than February, the fastest month-on-month rise since monthly figures were first collected in 1997.

Ireland’s central bank forecast this week that price growth would peak at 7.7% in the second quarter and remain above 7% for the third quarter before declining to 5.1% in the final three months of the year. Annual Irish inflation briefly touched 7% in 2000 and was last above that level in 1984.

Reporting by Padraic Halpin
Editing by Mark Heinrich

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